Healing
The following passages are
taken from Father Henri J.M. Nouwen’s book “Bread for the Journey,”
published in 1997.
1. Listening with our Wounds (July 10)
To enter into solidarity with a suffering person does not mean that we
have to talk with that person about our own suffering. Speaking about our own
wounds is seldom helpful to someone who is in pain. A wounded healer is
someone who can listen to a person in pain without having to speak about his or
her wounds. When we have lived through a painful depression, we can listen with
great attentiveness and love to a depressed friend without mentioning our
experience. Mostly it is better not to direct a suffering person’s attention
to ourselves. We have to trust that our own bandaged wounds will allow us to
listen to others with our whole being. That is healing.
2. Tending our own Wounds First (July 9)
Our own experience with loneliness, depression and fear can become
a gift for others, especially when we have received good care. As long as
our wounds are open and bleeding, we scare others away. But after someone has
carefully tended to our wounds, they no longer frighten us or others.
When we experience the healing presence of another person, we can
discover our own gifts of healing. Then our wounds allow us to enter into a
deep solidarity with our wounded brothers and sisters.
3. Giving and Receiving Consolation (Feb 9)
Consolation is a beautiful word. It means “to be” (con-) “with
the lonely one” (solus). To offer consolation is one of the most
important ways to care. Life is so full of pain, sadness, and loneliness
that we often wonder what we can do to alleviate the immense suffering we see.
We can and must offer consolation. We can and must console the mother who lost
her child, the young person with AIDS, the family whose house burned down, the
soldier who was wounded, the teenager who contemplates suicide, the old man who
wonders why he should stay alive.
To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be
there and say, “You are not alone. I am with you. Together we can carry the
burden. Don’t be afraid. I am here.” That is consolation. We all need to
give it as well as to receive it.
4. Absence that creates Presence (March 13)
It is good to visit people who are sick, dying, shut in, handicapped
or lonely. But it is also important not to be guilty when our visits have to be
short or can only happen occasionally. Often we are so apologetic about our
limitations that our apologies prevent us from really being with the other when
we are there. A short time fully present to a sick person is much better than a
long time with many explanations of why we are too busy to come more often.
If we are able to be fully present to our friends when we are with
them, our absence too will bear many fruits. Our friends will say, “He
visited me” or She visited me,” and discover in our absence the lasting grace of
our presence.
5. Our Unique Call (March 10)
So many terrible things happen everyday that we start wondering
whether the few things we do ourselves make any sense. When people are starving
only a few thousand miles away, when wars are raging close to our borders, when
countless people in our cities have no homes to live in, our own activities look
futile. Such considerations, however, can paralyse and depress us.
Here the word call becomes important. We are
not called to save the world, solve all problems, and help all people. But each
of us has our own unique call, in our families, in our work, in our world.
We have to keep asking God to help us see clearly what our call is and to give
us the strength to live out that call with trust. Then we will discover that
our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses
of our time.
6. Wounded Healers (July 8)
Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether
physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not “How
can we hide our wounds?” so we don’t have to be embarrassed but “How can we
put our woundedness in the service of others?” When our wounds cease to be a
source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.
Jesus is God’s wounded healer. Through His wounds we are healed,
as “by whose stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus’ suffering and
death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory; His rejection brought
a community of love. As followers of Jesus we can also allow our wounds to bring
healing to others.
7. How Time Heals (July 7)
“Time heals,” people often say. This is not true when it means that we
will eventually forget the wounds inflicted on us and be able to live on as if
nothing happened. That is not really healing; it is simply ignoring reality.
But when the expression “time heals” means that faithfulness in a difficult
relationship can lead us to a deeper understanding of the ways we have hurt each
other, then there is much truth in it. “Time heals” implies not passively
waiting but actively working with our pain and trusting in the possibility of
forgiveness and reconciliation.
8. Healing our Memories (Jan 29)
Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the
memory of the wound might stay with us for a long time, even throughout our
lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But
forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing.
When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of
attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their
ill advice, we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events
we had no control over.
Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these
events destroy us, it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of
our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories.
9. Healing our Hearts through Forgiveness (Jan 27)
How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest
desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between
giving and receiving is what create peace and harmony. But if our condition for
giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive!
Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act
that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts
and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to
forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing to do
so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.
The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving
others is first and foremost healing our own hearts.
10. A Ministry of Healing and Reconciliation (Nov 6)
How does the Church witness to Christ in the world? First and foremost
by giving visibility to Jesus’ love for the poor and the weak. In a world so
hungry for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and most of all unconditional
love, the Church must alleviate that hunger through its ministry. Wherever we
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, listen to those who are
rejected, and bring unity and peace to those who are divided, we proclaim the
living Christ, whether we speak about Him or not.
It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain
in the Name of Jesus, who sent us. Outside His Name our ministry will lose its
divine energy.